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Journal of Tropical Pediatrics 2000 46(4):231-233; doi:10.1093/tropej/46.4.231
© 2000 by Oxford University Press
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Brief report. Prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and its vertical transmission in Egyptian pregnant women and their newborns

AS KassemA, AA El-NawawyA,Z, MN MassoudA, SY Abou El-NazarB and EM SobhiA

A Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, B Institute of Medical Research, Immunology Department, Alexandria University, Egypt Z Corresponding author

We studied the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody seropositivity using ELISA (Ortho Diagnostic system, 3rd generation test) polymerase chain reaction testing of HCV-RNA (PCR, Promega) and serum alanine transferase (ALT) level in 100 healthy, HIV-negative, pregnant women who delivered spontaneously at the Alexandria University Hospital, and their newborns. Some risk factors were studied using Fisher's exact test. Nineteen per cent of pregnant women were HCV seropositive and 14 of them (14/19) had circulating HCV-RNA, detected by PCR. Nine of the babies born to the 19 HCV seropositive females had circulating antibodies, whereas HCV-RNA was detected in five of them. This gives a vertical transmission risk of 5/14 (36 per cent) for mothers carrying the HCV-RNA and 5/19 (26 per cent) for those having circulating HCV antibodies. History of previous blood transfusion, elevated serum ALT level, and history of infection with schistosomiasis were significant risk factors for HCV infection in mothers. In addition to the previous factors, maternal history of jaundice, stillbirth and hepatomegaly were significant risk factors for neonatal infection. The occurrence of early jaundice and the presence of congenital anomalies in the newborns were non-significant risk factors. In conclusion, our data indicate a high prevalence of HCV seropositivity in Egyptian HIV-negative pregnant women with a significant high rate of vertical transmission of HCV.


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